Cross My Heart
by darkdemondog24
Summary: Skipper and Julien have an embarrassing secret that they've been trying to cover up for weeks now, but when animals at the zoo start slowly catching wind of their secret feelings for each other, the couple is forced to either face the judgement of their friends, or leave Central Park forever. Skipper/Julien.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first POM fic in a long LONG while. I just started getting into the show again...and quickly fell in love with a pairing that I formerly hated. So I wrote a story about it! Sorry if it isn't so good, as I said, I've been away from this fandom for a few years. **

* * *

The empty walkways echoed with near silence as the residents of the Central Park Zoo hunkered down in their habitats for another night of rest whilst the zoo was temporarily void of tourists. It was late, just a few minutes past midnight, but the nocturnal animals were not the only ones still stirring at this dreary hour. Young Private tossed and turned in his hard concrete bunk in the underground HQ beneath the penguin habitat. As he gradually lapsed into full consciousness, he became aware of the light snoring coming from directly above and below him, and he realized that his teammates were still asleep. What time was it?

Private sleepily stretched his flippers and rolled over, but in his drowsy state, he failed to remember that there was a two foot drop from the edge of his bunk to the equally hard floor down below. He was abruptly jolted into full awareness as his body met with cold, flat concrete. Agitated from being jostled out of bed by absolutely nothing and in slight pain from the developing bruise on his rump, the young penguin rubbed his rustled tail feathers back into place and yawned. He decided that he must have subconsciously woken up in the middle of a dream. Now what? Judging on how deeply his fellow teammates were in their slumber, it wasn't nearly morning yet, but he was far too awake now to attempt sleep again. Private settled on pouring himself a glass of water for the time being, and peeled his body off the floor to get to his feet.

Suddenly, the penguin froze in place before his simple action could be conducted as the previously silent HQ came alive with a loud clanking noise from the other corner of the room. Private suppressed a gasp and tried to remain still as his eyes darted over to the source of the racket. Had somebody broken in? Were they all suddenly in danger because of an unexpected night predator lurking about their base? The others were almost certainly asleep, and he had zero confidence that he would be able to fend an enemy off all by himself in the middle of the night—

"Private?"

A familiar voice emerged from the shadows, and Private at first tensed up at the sound of it, but relaxed again when he was able to register who the voice belonged to. The hidden penguin stepped into the dim light that bathed the center of the room, his immediate expression resembling that of somebody who had been caught red-flippered doing something that they shouldn't have been doing. However, that quickly faded and Skipper portrayed his usual indifferent expression as his observing eyes prodded the room. "At ease, soldier." he commanded.

"Oh, Skipper! It's only you, haha…you startled me there for a moment!" Private replied as he scuttled to his feet and quietly approached his superior, mindful of the other two penguins in the room who were still sound asleep in their bunks.

"What are you doing up at this hour, Private?" Skipper asked in a serious and slightly demanding tone of voice. The fact that he was up at such a late hour wasn't the only thing suspicious about Skipper's appearance. Private couldn't help noticing that his flippers were behind his back—he was obviously trying to hide something.

"I just woke up to get a glass of water." he answered, gesturing across the room to his destination. "What are you doing up? And what was all that noise you were making?"

"Um…it's nothing important, really." Skipper replied warily as his grip tightened around his hidden possession. "I'm going out on a…secret mission."

Private raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "But you were out late for the past three nights!" he pointed out, though he bit his own tongue as the words tumbled out. He had been awake for Skipper's previous outings without the lead penguin's knowledge, and hadn't meant to bring it up for fear of being accused of spying. Fortunately, Skipper didn't seem to take note of Private's little slip-up, or perhaps he was too distracted to care. "What on Earth could be so important that you'd miss four nights of sleep for it?" Private continued.

"What part of 'secret mission' do you not understand? It's classified!"

Private grumbled under his breath, but he knew better than to pry Skipper for answers when he was acting this defensive over something. "Yes, you're right, sorry."

"Thought so. I'll be back before you're awake again…and I _will_ find you asleep when I return. Comprendo?" he ordered, eyeing his soldier expectantly.

Private nodded and gave a small salute. "Understood!"

With that, Skipper waddled to the metal ladder and began his ascent to the sleeping world above, which allowed Private to catch a glimpse of what he had been carrying behind his back.

"What kind of secret mission requires a bouquet of flowers?"

The penguin leader froze mid-climb at the question and muttered a curse to himself that Private couldn't hear. He was unable to push back his shudder of embarrassment, but still insisted that it was nothing important and ordered Private back to bed immediately. The lower-rank penguin complied and Skipper finally exited the HQ into the cool night air, replacing the metal food bowl on the hole in the ceiling as he departed.

Skipper approached his destination—a well-hidden corner on the opposite side of the zoo where he had been retreating to for the past few nights. As he neared the corner, a shadowy figure came into view. The mystery person was lying atop the stone wall bordering one of the habitats, his long bushy tail dangling over the side as he gazed up into the nearly starless sky. At the distinct sound of a pair of feet padding their way over, the figure abruptly sat up and leaped gracefully off of the wall to face the penguin he had been expecting.

"You are late."

The penguin froze, and nervously ran a flipper through the feathers atop his flat scalp, instinctively scanning the area for anyone in the vicinity who could be eavesdropping on their conversation. "I know, I know I'm late. I ran into a little trouble while sneaking out. I just wanted to take extra precautions to make sure I wasn't caught in the act of—" Skipper paused mid-sentence as the other male briskly stepped forward and pressed a finger to his beak.

"Shhh…less talky talky! It is not mattering now." Now the duo were mere inches apart, and as he stepped into the dim orange light that was given off by one of the nearby street lamps, Skipper could now clearly see into the lemur's golden irises, which suddenly darted to his side. "Oooh, you brought me a present?" Julien asked, instantly distracted by the dazzling bouquet of brightly colored wildflowers that his visitor was holding.

"Well I…" Skipper began, holding the gift out in front of him, be he was once again cut off by his impatient partner, who eagerly snatched the bundle from his flippers.

"Ah, what a gorgeous selection of flowers!" he remarked, admiring them for at least half a second more before carelessly tossing them aside. "As beautiful as they may be, they aren't even remotely comparable to your superiorly gorgeous king!"

"'Course not." Skipper replied with a smirk, thankful that the darkness could easily shroud his obvious eye roll. No matter how drastically their relationship changed, Julien would always remain the very same conceited, boasting, royal pain-in-the-butt that he was when the duo first met. While it wasn't his most admirable quality, Skipper had come to tolerate it nonetheless.

After another moment of silence, the lemur sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. "So, are we just going to be standing here all night, or shall we make with the, eh…_festivities_?" He leaned in closer until his snout nearly grazed the tip of Skipper's beak, and ran a long, dark finger down his puffed out chest. The penguin's feather's ruffled at the gentle touch, and he felt his stomach lurch with desire as he returned his partner's lustful stare. Skipper secured a flipper around the lemur's waist to pull him closer.

"Your wish is my command, your majesty." Skipper replied to answer Julien's question. His eyes flickered briefly up at the sky—not a helicopter in sight, only a few twinkling stars to light up the night, but they were dazzling nonetheless. "We have all night long, and what an enchanting night it is."

"Enough with the yippity yappity blah blah blah!" the king commanded. He gracefully leapt into the air, allowing Skipper to automatically catch him, wrapping one flipper around his lower waste and another around his back. Julien in return wrapped both arms around the other male's thick neck and diminished the distance between them even further, running a finger softly down his beak. "There is no need for the chitty chat when you can be doing something much more useful with your lips…"

"Technically I don't have lips."

"Lips, beak, same difference! Just quit it with the teasing and kiss me already!"

Skipper needed no further command. He leaned forward until his beak met the slim snout of the lemur he so passionately cradled. Julien returned the kiss and felt his tail twitch back and forth with delight. After a few moments of this, both males separated and drew in a well needed breath of air, before Skipper offered another passionate peck, this time along the lemur's jawbone. Furry fingers dug into the contours of the penguin's neck, rustling the neatly groomed feathers from their proper place. Closer, closer. Soon not a centimeter of space stood between the couple.

Finally, after locking lips one last time in their lustful frenzy, Julien was the one to pull away for a breath (he was no semi-aquatic bird, after all) and settled for resting his forehead on Skipper's brow, causing his crown to lean back slightly atop his head. This time it was not their lips but their eyes that locked together as Julien's golden irises met Skipper's icy blue ones, and the males panted silently, taking in the moment.

"It is quite the shame that we only have a few hours a night to spend with each other like this, is it not?" the lemur spoke, terminating the peaceful silence of the night. The only other sound was the distant hum of the restless streets of Manhattan.

"As short as our time together may be, the extra precautions are necessary, you know this." Skipper reassured. "If you'd rather bring our intimate secret to the public eye and have the whole zoo know about us, go right ahead!"

Though he knew Skipper was only being sarcastic when he added 'go right ahead', the lemur could not help but wonder what an incident like that may bring. Would letting everyone know about it be such a bad thing? They had successfully kept their nightly meet-ups under wraps for weeks now, but how much longer was their secret going to last?

"I've been thinking Skipper…" the king said softly, stroking the feathers on the back of the penguin's neck as he spoke.

"Yes, Ringtail?"

"How long are our love-things going to remain a secret?" he asked, his orange eyes gleaming in the moonlight. "I mean…wouldn't it be easier to just tell everyone already? You know they are going to figure it out on their own eventually…"

He was answered with a solemn sigh, laced with uncertainty. "We've been through this before. Neither of us have any way of knowing how everyone else will take it, so I'd rather not risk it just yet."

The lemur king pouted, but silently agreed, though his body stiffened in his lover's embrace. Skipper detected an angry swish of his bushy tail as it skimmed his shiny coat of feathers. Still holding him bridal-style, he nuzzled his beak into the crook of Julien's neck in an attempt to cheer him up again.

"Why sulk about the time that we can't spend together when we should be cherishing every moment we have?" he pointed out. This earned a smirk from Julien.

"That is logic that even I cannot be arguing with." he purred back, returning the penguin's nuzzling to complete their loving embrace.

Without either male's knowledge, a set of eyes had been watching them intently for the entirety of their get-together. Even Skipper hadn't detected the intruder—his sharp eyes had been too fixed on his partner for him to notice anything out of the ordinary. Slowly, the midnight eavesdropper blinked and turned away from the scene as he allowed himself a chance to make sense of what he had just witnessed. Private just couldn't allow himself to believe that it was all true. Had he only dreamt the whole thing? Could he be delusional? Possibly crazy? Any of these answers seemed more plausible than the truth, which was buzzing around his mind like an angry wasp now, but he still couldn't grasp it. Before he could be noticed, Private quickly departed back to the HQ, where he would have some time to sort everything out in his head before Skipper returned.


	2. Chapter 2

The last thing Kowalski and Rico had expected to be woken up by was the sound of Private quite literally dropping into the base in complete hysterics as he shouted gibberish into their ears.

"Guys, wake up! It's an emergency! Skipper…Skipper was…with Julien! They were…I…GAH!"

Having been rudely awoken by the racket Private had caused stumbling into the base, the penguins stirred in their bunks. Rico groaned and coughed up a set of earmuffs which he placed over his head, and Kowalski lifted his sleeping mask from his eyes to acknowledge his frenzied colleague.

"Private, do you have any idea what time it is? What on Earth could be so important?"

"Just listen to me!" Private nearly shouted.

With a loud yawn, the most intelligent of the group climbed out of bed to face his agitated teammate, shaking Rico awake as well. Rico discarded his earmuffs and sleepily followed suit, but grumbled something unintelligible under his breath in annoyance from having been woken from his slumber.

"Good, now that I have your attention…" Private started, but paused when an uneasy feeling arose from his stomach. Suddenly he didn't feel so comfortable sharing something that was obviously a well-kept secret, but he swallowed back his uncertainty and spoke anyways, feeling as if he would explode if he didn't tell somebody about what he had discovered. "You're probably not going to believe this, but Skipper is disappearing every night to have um…secret meetings with somebody…"

Kowalski let loose a single laugh at Private's confession. "Nightly meetings? I'm afraid that isn't anything out of the ordinary Private, much less something worth worrying yourself over. Skipper disappears on secret missions all the time, surely you know that by now."

"I know, but…" the younger penguin grimaced. "This wasn't any sort of secret mission! It was more like a…a date!"

"Hubba wha?" Rico blubbered in response, his eyes growing wide. Kowalski looked just as shocked.

"Skipper…on a date?" The scientist put a flipper to his chin, pondering this. "Are you sure this wasn't just a dream you had? Perhaps a sugar-induced hallucination?"

"No, I was there! I swear I was!" Private proceeded to explain. "I woke up earlier tonight and caught Skipper leaving the base with a bouquet of flowers. I was awfully suspicious, and although I shouldn't have been so nosey, I followed him. And…well…he met up with somebody, and they…oh dear." The queasy feeling returned full force in his stomach—he wasn't even comfortable repeating half of what he had witnessed. "They had a very intimate encounter, let's leave it at that…"

The other penguins only stared at Private, their expressions curious, but not the slightest bit believing of his tale. "Oh really now? And who might be this mysterious damsel that Skipper visits every night?"

Private frowned nervously. If they didn't believe his claims before, they sure weren't going to now. "It…it wasn't a damsel actually. A 'king', rather. It was Julien!"

The concrete walls of the underground headquarters echoed with pure silence as Private's words sunk in. Kowalski and Rico exchanged glances briefly before breaking out into a fit of laughter. Rico, who was over-dramatizing the moment, fell over backwards and started rolling around on the floor, giggling like a madman all the while. Private flushed with embarrassment. He couldn't believe it, his own teammates thought he was joking!

"Oh wow, that was great!" Kowalski proclaimed, wiping a tear from his eye. "For a moment there I thought you were being serious!" Rico continued sniggering in the background.

"But I wasn't joking!" he protested.

"Then you're making it up!"

"I am _not_!" I was not dreaming, I was not hallucinating, and I am most certainly not lying about what I saw!" Private crossed his flippers over his chest, insulted that they would even consider his account to be a flat-out lie! "I saw what I saw and I'm telling you, there's something going on between Julien and Skipper that they're not telling us!"

Rico finally caught his breath and stopped laughing, once again making eye contact with Kowalski as they shared bewildered glances. It was extremely rare that Private of all penguins were to get frustrated over something—it was apparent that he was telling the truth, or at least believed that what he was saying was the truth.

"Alright, alright." the smartest of the group finally said, deciding to end this argument with reason rather than anger. "Private, just think about what you're implying for a second. It doesn't even sound remotely believable! 'Skipper' and 'love' are two things that just don't sit right together…and adding Julien to the mix isn't making any of what you said seem more likely. Of all the creatures in the zoo—no, on this _planet_—Julien is undoubtedly the last living being that Skipper would consider worthy enough of courtship." Rico made a gagging noise in the back of his throat at the mere thought before Kowalski continued. "Besides, even if it were a possibility, don't you think Skipper would have told us by now?"

As if on cue, the sound of metal scraping against concrete pervaded the air as the hidden hatch in the ceiling was uncovered and the missing penguin leader stumbled down into the room, seeming exhausted and disoriented. Any trace of the previous conversation was immediately doused upon the entrance of the night's subject.

"Greetings, Skipper." Private blurted out nervously, just now remembering that his leader had expected him to be sound asleep upon his arrival. Skipper didn't seem to recall the order he gave though, for he didn't mention a word about it, rather he muttered a bleak greeting and fumbled around for his coffee mug.

"So, Skipper. Where'd you waddle off to all night?" Kowalski decided to ask out of curiosity and the slightest hint of suspicion. Their normally alert and demanding leader wasn't acting at all like himself, and though Private's story was too far-fetched to believe, the scientist sensed that something was out of the ordinary with him.

"Oh, um," the elite penguin replied, distractedly grooming a few rough patches of feathers back into place. "Nowhere in particular, just a top secret mission. Nothing to fret about."

Private sniffed at the air as a peculiar scent wafted through the room and invaded his nostrils. "Why do you smell like expensive hair products?" he asked.

Skipper's unbreakable gaze widened as the question caught him off guard—he didn't have a cover story planned for _that_. "Well you see, uh…this new mission required me to…I had to uh…"

"Skipper, is there something that you're not telling us?" asked Kowalski. All three penguins gave their leader and inquisitive stare, desperate for answers.

In response, the quick-witted penguin wiped a bead of sweat from his brow and carefully avoided the three sets of eyes that were now studying him intently. "I'm going out for a swim." he finally announced, turning his back to them and ignoring the question entirely. Then, as soon as he had entered the HQ, Skipper exited, allowing a few rays of dim orange sunlight to leak into the underground base as he opened the hatch again, signaling that morning had come.

As soon as their leader had left, Private sighed and turned to face his two remaining teammates. "You see?" he exclaimed. "Didn't any of that sound suspicious to you?"

"It was very un-Skipper like behavior." Kowalski pointed out. "I have a feeling that there's something he's trying to hide from us…but that doesn't mean _your_ assumption is a valid one." Rico nodded in agreement.

Aggravated, the youngest of the bunch once again folded his flippers over his chest, but decided to hold his tongue. There was no point in arguing with them about the issue; while he knew the truth, he doubted he could convince them to believe it without any physical proof. "Fine." Private said. "You can believe or not believe whatever you want, but I'm getting to the bottom of this!"

Before Kowalski or Rico could say another word, Private had quickly exited the HQ, being extra careful to evade the eyes of Skipper as he sneaked out towards the lemur habitat to seek the answers he was craving.

Meanwhile, a certain bunch of exotic mammals were running through their own early morning rituals.

"No." bellowed the heavily accented voice of King Julien as he was presented a fresh mango by his most loyal of servants.

"How about this one?" Mort asked, tossing the rejected fruit aside and holding out another mango.

"No." his king replied, boredom lurking in his tone.

"This one?"

"Too small."

"This one?"

"Lopsided."

"This one?"

"That isn't even a mango Mort, use those big eyes of yours!"

"How about this?" the mouse lemur offered, to which Julien grimaced.

"Are you blind? It has a moldy spot on it for crying out loud! Are you trying to poison your king? Is _that_ what you want?" he angrily accused.

Mort seemed to shrink under the fierceness of Julien's shrill demand. "Um…no King Julien! I'll find another!" he peeped, but before he could try his luck with another breakfast offering, he was interrupted by Maurice calling from across the habitat.

"Your highness!"

Julien dragged a furry hand across his face and glared at the sky from atop his throne. "What now?" he asked himself as he hopped down from his royal seat and followed the sound of his other subject's voice. He found him in the bamboo kitchen area of the lemur habitat with a puzzled expression on his stout face.

"What is it Maurice? How dare you interrupt the choosing of the royal breakfast?" the uptight king demanded.

"Sorry your highness, I was just going to ask about where these came from." he answered, holding up the very same set of flowers that had been delivered to Julien last night. Though they were surely not as gorgeous as the king they were given to, the lemur had accepted them nonetheless, and placed them in the habitat—he hadn't counted on anybody wondering where they may have come from.

"I have no idea what you are talking about Maurice." the ring-tailed lemur responded without showing the tiniest hint of dishonesty. If there was one thing Julien had a skill for, it was lying with a straight face.

"You don't see this?" Maurice asked, holding the bundle closer as if his king had been unable to see them before. "How did an entire bouquet of flowers just appear out of nowhere in the middle of the habitat?"

Julien shrugged and began to stroll away, uninterested. "Somebody must have snuck in and put them there in the middle of the night as an offering to their gracious king."

"But…in the middle of the night? Who would do that?"

The king lemur swiveled around and raised an eyebrow as if Maurice were talking nonsense. "Who _wouldn't_ leave a present for me in the middle of the night, Maurice?" He snatched the wild flowers from his subject's arms and hugged them to his chest, burying his nose in them. "Now stay away from my royal presents!"

"Um, excuse me, please," a small voice suddenly cut in out of nowhere. All three sets of eyes darted to the edge of the concrete platform, where the voice had come from, and Private took this gesture as his cue to step out and greet the lemurs, once he had everyone's attention.

"Yes?" Julien asked, dropping the flowers. "What is the second most cute and cuddly penguin wanting?"

Private raised an eyebrow, confused and even slightly hurt by the title. "_Second_ cute and cuddly penguin?"

"Eh, I mean…never mind!" the lemur said quickly, his tone suddenly wary. He mentally cursed himself for letting that leak out. "Why are you here?"

"Oh, I just wanted to ask you a few questions, Julien. If you don't mind, of course."

"Yes, yes, get on with it." he replied with little concern, waving Maurice and Mort away as he perched himself on one of the wooden barstools and leaned an elbow on the countertop. The penguin's eyes darted immediately to the abandoned bunch of flowers on the ground, which filled him with sudden confidence. It was the very same bouquet that Skipper had taken with him on his 'secret mission', and if they were with Julien now, it all had to be true! He hadn't imagined any of it!

Private cleared his throat and took a seat on the stool next to Julien's, offering him a cheery smile. "So I was just going to ask, um…have you spent any time with Skipper lately?"

"No." the king answered expressionlessly.

"Has he come to visit you at all in the past few nights?"

"He would not have a reason to."

"Do you at least know where he's been sneaking off to at night?"

"Why would I be knowing that? I would think that you would know more about the bossy penguin than I would, you only _live_ with him." he answered.

Private frowned at the inconclusive answers he was receiving so far—he just couldn't shake the truth out of him. Time to change tactics. "Where'd you get those flowers?"

"Somebody gave them to me."

"Who did?"

"An anonymous loyal subject who thought that their king was deserving of a present. What is wrong with that?"

"But weren't they given to you in person?"

"By who?"

"Skipper!"

"When was this?"

"Last night!"

The lemur lifted an arm and scratched the top of his head as if he were thinking hard about something, and just as Private could sense that he was going to confess, he solemnly answered, "I have no idea what you are talking about."

Suddenly, Private lost it. He grabbed Julien by the shoulders and nearly shouted at him, "You know exactly what I'm talking about! Skipper and you met up last night and he gave you those flowers in person! I saw every last moment of it with my own eyes, now stop lying to my face and fess up already!"

"But why would Skipper of all people give me flowers?" he asked, unable to hide his smirk. While he was unable to convince Private of his obvious lies, it sure was amusing to watch him flip out over it.

"That's what I want to know!" the penguin demanded. "We both know exactly what happened, now tell me already!"

"Tell you what?"

"Tell me that what happened last night was true!"

"What happened last night?"

"Skipper visited you and gave you flowers!"

"Eh, no he didn't."

"Yes he did!"

"I'm pretty sure I would be remembering if something like that happened."

"Just admit it!"

"Admit what?"

"GAH!" Private cried out in aggravation. His grip tightened around the lemur's shoulders. "Are you or are you not in a romantic relationship with Skipper?"

"Hmmm, let me think…I'm gonna go with no."

The young penguin groaned and released his as he hopped down from the stool and briskly waddled away, ending the interview. He realized that he was getting absolutely nowhere with this if he couldn't get the stubborn lemur to fess up, and it was pointless asking him questions that he already knew the answers to. "Forget I asked." he muttered over his shoulder in a defeated voice as he left the habitat.

Julien watched the separating figure carefully, and waited until Private was well out of earshot before he released a defeated groan of his own and pounded his head into the wooden countertop in frustration. If one penguin—and the most naive and gullible of the bunch, at that—had figured it out already, how much longer before the entire zoo knew their secret?

While Private had been busy confronting Julien, the elite penguin leader had kept to his word and taken a nice long swim in the icy water surrounding the HQ. When Skipper was particularly stressed, the only thing that could effectively relax his nerves was a healthy dose of exercise and cold water on his tensed muscles. However, when he broke the surface and came up for a rest at the bars of the habitat, unease settled in his stomach once more as he found himself staring into the source of his problems.

Skipper perched himself on the thin concrete ledge and tightened his grip on the bars as he stared into the lemur habitat directly across from him. Though his view was too obstructed to see what was happening inside, just the thought of one of the residents in particular provoked an array of vivid daydreams, and the penguin found himself staring into the habitat for much longer than intended—until a familiar passerby pulled him back into reality.

"Hello, Earth to Skipper!" the otter said, jumping in front of his view. This startled him into losing his hold on the metal bars and stumbling backwards into the water with a yelp and a splash. Marlene couldn't suppress her giggling—at least until Skipper broke the surface again and she was met with a deadly glare, deadly enough to silence her laughter.

Irritated beyond belief, Skipper swam back to the ledge and skillfully leapt over the bars, landing gracefully on the other side to face his daydream intruder. "Never catch me off guard like that again!" he scolded her. "If this iron fence hadn't been here between us, I wouldn't have hesitated to knock your lights out in the blink of an eye!"

Marlene only rolled her large brown eyes, as if to say 'You wish!' and decided not to argue with Skipper's threat. "Well somebody had to wake you up, it looked to me like Mr. Stealth dozed off there for a minute." She stole a quick glance at the large clock at the zoo entrance. "More like ten minutes. What's so interesting about the lemur habitat?"

"I was not staring at the lemur habitat!" Skipper argued defensively.

"It seemed like you were, considering there's nothing else to stare at over in that general direction." she replied with an indifferent shrug. "Why so grouchy this morning?"

Skipper grumbled in response. "I'm just a little on edge…"

"Is there anything on your mind that you need to spill?" Marlene asked.

"Well I…" he started, when something suddenly occurred to him, causing his expression to brighten. "Hey, you're a female Marlene! You must have loads of knowledge about all things related to the heart, don't you?"

"Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I…"

"Great!" Skipper cut her off, taking a quick glance around to make sure nobody was spying on them before he continued. "Now, hypothetically speaking of course, if somebody were to fall in love with somebody else, only to realize that their relationship had to remain a tightly kept secret because it wasn't socially accepted for them to be together, what should that couple in particular do about the situation? I was thinking maybe hightail it out of the state, maybe even the country, leaving absolutely no trace of ever being there. Or perhaps maybe we—_they_ should fake their own deaths and then start a new life with new names on another side of town. I guess if they wanted a less confusing approach, they could always just use threats with nuclear firearms to force everyone else into accepting them…but I'm going to need a second opinion on the matter…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa…" Marlene stopped him to allow herself some time to process all of that. "Skipper…in love?" She laughed. "Oh this is just too rich!"

Skipper felt his face grow unnaturally hot. "What? I never said that _I_ was the one in love! What part of 'hypothetically speaking' is difficult for you to understand?" he asked, jabbing a flipper at her chest.

"Oh, don't give me that. Whenever anyone uses the term 'hypothetically speaking', they're quite obviously talking about themselves and trying to cover it up. Now come on, who's the special someone that you have your eyes on?" she asked, batting her eyelashes in curiosity.

"I told you I'm not—"

"Skipper, I can't help you if you don't tell me who it is! Or do you want me to start guessing?"

"Marlene!"

"Considering it was the lemur habitat that you were so longingly staring at, I can make three good guesses right off the bat…"

"_Marlene!_"

"Or I can go ahead and narrow it down to one lemur, which would explain why you're being so defensive about this whole thing." The otter paused and thought about what she was implying, and expressed her disbelief with a short gasp. "Skipper! I never expected you to have a thing for Ju—"

Before she could complete her sentence, the penguin abruptly thrust both flippers over her mouth to clamp it shut, the extra force pressing her against the metal bars of the penguin habitat. "Don't say that!" Skipper ordered harshly, swiveling his head from side to side as he once again scanned the area for anyone who might be listening. He opened his beak again to protest her claim, but there was no need.

"You just proved me right!" Marlene stated giddily after prying his flippers from her mouth.

Skipper stepped back away from her, feeling like his tongue had tied itself in a knot to prevent speech, and his stomach had followed suit. There was absolutely nothing left to say that would help his argument, but it didn't matter anyways—he couldn't deny it anymore. The only thing left to do was flee while he still possessed a shred of dignity…

"I should have known better than to ask you for help!" he exclaimed angrily as he made a quick exit, sliding on his stomach in the opposite direction. Marlene could only stare after him, puzzling over what just happened as the blur of black and white disappeared from her line of vision.

Just outside the walls of the zoo, a very anxious and disgruntled penguin was pacing back and forth wondering what to do next. If Marlene knew the truth, how much longer until everyone else in the zoo found out? Would they be able to keep their little secret for much longer, or would they be forced to come out with it and face the judgment of all their friends? As if he wasn't already off his guard, Skipper was taken by complete surprise for the second time that day as something popped down from one of the trees, just inches from his beak. He jumped back in astonishment, raising his flippers to be ready for attack if necessary, until he realized that he was staring into a familiar pair of golden eyes…only they were upside down.

Skipper stepped back and glanced up into the tree to find that the ring-tailed lemur was hanging upside down from a branch by his tail, much like a possum would. His colorful crown had slipped off of his head and now lied on the ground directly below his dangling body. Skipper might have found Julien's particular position to be downright adorable if he wasn't so stressed out, so he pushed the thought of granting his upside down lover a Spiderman/Mary Jane style kiss out of his head and forced his mind back on track. "Don't scare me like that Ringtail, I'm not having a very pleasant afternoon."

"Well my day hasn't exactly been a party, either!" Julien proclaimed, crossing his arms. "We may have a slight problem…"

"Just what I needed to hear." Skipper said. "What's the problem?"

Julien unwound his tail from the branch he was hanging from, expecting to flip over and somehow land on his feet, but he unfortunately lacked the acrobatic skills and ended up landing face first into the dirt. Skipper would have laughed had their situation not been so dire. The lemur king compelled himself enough to sit up and replace his crown before continuing. "It seems that the cute and cuddly but not quite as cute and cuddly as you are penguin knows about our nightly outings."

"Private?" Skipper was disheartened by this, but not at all surprised. When he had returned to the HQ earlier that morning, a suspicion blanketed the air so thickly that you could cut it with a butter knife. His teammates were far from clueless; it was no wonder they had probably figured everything out by now.

Noticing Skipper's uneasiness, Julien decided to reassure him with his own brilliant solution to their dilemma. "Do not worry about it, my dear. I know the perfect way to be fixing this!"

"Oh yeah, and what exactly is this genius idea of yours?" Skipper asked, unconvinced.

"Simple! We will lure the chubby penguin into a dark, empty place with nobody else around. Then, when the timing is right, we will murder him, and dispose of the body underneath the royal bouncy!" The lemur rubbed his paws together in a maniacal gesture, chuckling at his 'genius idea'.

Skipper rolled his eyes. Often he wondered how he found such an imbecile to be so irresistibly attractive. "What a fantastic idea, Ringtail! I can't believe that _I_ didn't think of that!" he exclaimed sarcastically.

"Well you know, not everybody can be as brilliant as King Julien." the lemur gloated, puffing out his chest proudly.

An annoyed sigh escaped from Skipper's beak. "Even if that idea was a valid one, it still wouldn't do much good. Marlene figured it out too, I'm afraid."

Julien huffed. "Oh, perfect! Now Miss Big Girly Mouth is going to go on a gossiping spree and tell everybody about it! The whole zoo will know by sundown!"

"It looks like we're fresh out of options…" Skipper said as he began to pace again. "Either we come clean and tell everyone the truth about what's going on, or we wait for them to figure it out themselves. Either way, I don't foresee a happy outcome." He paused mid-pace as Julien leapt in front of him.

"Or, we could choose the third option!" he proposed.

"What third option?"

Julien wrapped an arm around the shorter male's feathery shoulders as he proceeded to explain another fool-proof idea of his. "All we have to do is sneak away from the zoo, leave every last one of our friends behind, never to be seen or heard of again, and start our own happy life together someplace new! Someplace where we can be free to do as we please, someplace where we will never be judged for being together, someplace where our love doesn't have to be kept a secret! We will be living in the wild…in paradise!" His arm spread out across his field of vision, and if you had been near enough to see the gleam in the mammal's orange eyes, you'd think he was staring into his own little fantasy world.

"And by wild, I assume you mean Madagascar, a.k.a. the last place on this planet that I would ever want to be, with or without you." Skipper told him, gently wriggling out from underneath his furry arm.

"Actually I was thinking of Connecticut." he said.

The yellow-orange line on the horizon that was slowly fading into the distance caught Skipper's attention, and his partner's words suddenly chimed like church bells in his head. _The whole zoo will know by sundown._ Suddenly it occurred to him that they didn't have enough time to sort out their next course of action, therefore they didn't have a choice. "At this point, it doesn't matter if we're traveling to China. We barely have enough time to pack our belongings and sneak out of the zoo!" he pointed out, readying himself to scale the wall back into Central Park.

"Wait, wait…so we really are going to leave the zoo?" Julien asked, shocked that Skipper would even consider it.

"I don't see what other choice we have."

"So we're actually going with my plan?"

"Technically, yes."

The king clasped his hands together and rested his cheek on them dreamily. "I cannot be believing my ears! You're actually agreeing with something that I suggested for once!"

Skipper grumbled and suppressed the urge to wipe the ridiculously proud grin off of his face. "Like I said, I have no other choice now, do I? Now come on, we're burning daylight!"

With that, Julien scurried up the tree and back into Central Park, and with some help, Skipper scaled the wall back inside as well—just in time for the last streaks of sunlight to vanish on the evening sky.


	3. Chapter 3

Back inside the walls of the zoo, the rest of the animals were not in their individual habitats as usual, but crammed together all at once in the zoo gift shop. An ocean of uncertain murmurs filled the small room, which was just barely big enough to fit everybody. A zoo meeting had been called, but the reason was for the most part unknown, and so was the person who had called everyone together in the first place.

"What's all this about?"

"Is there some sort of emergency?"

"I heard somebody went missing!"

"Who cares about this blasted meeting!"

"Can we go home yet?"

"It's so hot in here…"

"Quit shoving me!"

While the majority of the crowd was confused, agitated, and eager to forget the matter and head back to their habitats to indulge in their usual evening activities, one of the animals had a queasy feeling in his stomach about all of this—he knew exactly what this meeting was about. Private winced as he could feel the guilt suffocating him. Earlier that day, he had discovered a shocking secret about his own team leader, and rather than keeping his beak shut, he had told Kowalski and Rico about it as well. Not only that, he had gone around investigating the subject, looking for answers when he knew he should have just let it drop. Something told him that because of his nosiness, the secret hadn't remained within the confines of the HQ, rather it had leaked out all over the zoo, and if every animal didn't know about it already, they were about to as soon as the meeting started. For what other reason would a meeting like this be called so suddenly? Private gulped nervously and waited as the animals were called to attention.

"Alright everyone, quiet down!" a female voice ordered as Marlene stepped up from her high place on the countertop in the center of the gift shop. Within a few moments, the confused murmurs of the animals were deduced to mere whispers, and then to absolute silence as every set of eyes focused on the otter.

"Good, now that I have your full attention…" she began.

"Excuse me," Mason cut in. "but will this meeting cover the issue of the new strictly enforced "Keep our zoo clean" policy? With tourists no longer littering around our habitat, it makes it near impossible for us to use the scraps of garbage to our advantage during visiting hours." He turned to his partner Phil, who flashed him a few hand signals to add to his complaint. "Phil finds it very inconvenient." A number of animals in the sidelines muttered in agreement with the monkeys.

"Uh, no." Marlene replied uninterestedly. "No, the problem that I'd like to discuss is—"

"Wait!"

Marlene was interrupted once more as Private suddenly shouted out above the crowd, unable to hold back his unease for another moment. He climbed up onto the countertop where the otter stood and faced his audience. "I'm sorry Marlene," he said. "I can't let you do this! It just isn't right to tell everyone!"

"Uh…what?" she replied, dumbfounded by the mild-mannered penguin's sudden outburst.

"Everyone…" Private continued. "Just last night I discovered something that I shouldn't have…a huge secret. I should have kept the whole thing between myself and the people involved, but I ended up spreading it around anyways. I know how rumors tend to get around quickly, so most of you probably already know exactly what I'm talking about. That's what I'm here to clear up. What you heard about the matter was nothing but a nasty rumor, not a bit of it is true, and I'm sorry that I ever opened my beak about it in the first place!"

At the front of the now befuddled crowd of animals, Kowalski huffed. "Is he really on about this again?" he muttered to Rico, to which the other penguin nodded and rolled his eyes. "I still don't believe it for a single second…I mean this is Skipper we're talking about!" He paused and put a flipper to his chin, scanning the room around them. "Come to think of it, where is Skipper?"

At that very moment, Skipper happened to be in the same building, yet was completely unaware of the meeting going on inside. He and Julien had snuck into the storage room in the back of the Zoovenir Shop with intentions to gather any supplies they would need to live comfortably outside of the zoo—at least until they figured out where they were going. Skipper ordered his partner to pack the necessary items that they would need while he sought a map of New York to figure out where they were going to go and how they were going to get there.

"If we take the quickest route to Grand Central Station according to this, we'll be there by roughly midnight." Skipper said aloud as he studied the map. "The problem is where we'll be going from there. I'll need a second opinion on…Ringtail, are you even listening to me?"

In fact, Julien had not been listening, instead he was wandering around the dark room, searching for suitable things to pack, like he had been told to do. "Yes, yes, whatever you are saying." he answered quickly, obviously distracted. Skipper was beginning to angrily repeat himself when the lemur's eyes caught something on the very top shelf of the cluttered storage room, causing him to squeal with delight. "Look, it is another me!" He pointed at the stuffed version of himself, which was sticking out noticeably amongst the rest of the discarded assortment of plush toys on the highest shelf.

"Like we really need another one of you." Skipper remarked, crossing his flippers. "Quit goofing off and do what I asked, we're running out of time if we want to catch the subway by midnight!"

"But I am wanting it badly!" Julien pleaded, and without a word of approval from Skipper, he began to climb up to the top shelf to claim his prize.

This action earned an annoyed scowl from his partner down below. "You're testing my patience!" the penguin warned.

Julien ignored him, for he had reached the top shelf. He released his grip on the wooden ledge and grabbed the artificial version of himself by the tail. "I got it—" he began to announce, when the stuffed lemur became un-wedged from the pile without warning, tumbling off of the shelf. Julien, who had been clinging onto nothing but the toy for support, fell to the floor along with it. Unfortunately for Skipper, he was the one to break the lemur's fall.

"Private, I hate to butt in here, but—" Marlene tried to intervene, but Private was persistent with his speech.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is, no more rumors, and no more nosing around in other people's business. I was wrong for doing what I did, and I cannot apologize enough for it. The only thing spreading rumors does is hurt whoever's involved, so before I hurt them anymore than I probably already have, I can honestly tell you that anything you've heard about them today is a lie!" the young penguin continued. Not many animals in the room were very interested in what he had to say, and even fewer of them had a clue what he was going on about. The majority of the audience had already tuned him out. "So, just to make things perfectly clear with everyone, there is absolutely nothing going on between Julien and Skipper!"

Just one room away, in the storage closet of the gift shop, the impact of Julien's fall had sent both him and Skipper somersaulting across the floor. As if on cue, the very moment Private ended his speech, both males slammed into the door separating the two rooms, and rolled into the middle of the meeting room. Their unexpected entrance was hardly as embarrassing as the way they landed—Skipper on his back with Julien perched on top of him. How ironic was it that they had landed in such a suggestive position when they were doing something perfectly innocent? If escaping from the zoo could be deemed innocent by comparison, that is. The lemur and penguin glanced over to find every pair of eyes in the entire zoo glued on them, and realized that their cover was blown—the awkward way they had landed was just the icing on the cake.

"Get off." Skipper ordered sternly as he felt his cheeks grow hotter than normal. Julien complied with an apologetic smile, and both males were left to face the confused eyes of the crowd before them.

"Uh…it isn't at all what it looks like…" Skipper said as he got to his feet, rubbing the back of his neck anxiously.

"Of course it isn't!" Julien chimed in. "We were only gathering supplies so that we could be escaping the zoo—" He was cut short when Skipper pressed a flipper to his snout.

"Ringtail, shut it!"

A series of gasps and murmurs floated about the crowd when the lemur's words sunk in. Kowalski was the one to step up. "Skipper…what reason could you possibly have for leaving the zoo…and without telling us?"

Skipper opened his beak to blurt out an explanation, but Julien cut him off. "Allow me to be explaining the situation." he said confidently. Skipper groaned and buried his hands in his flippers as he realized that their secret relationship now completely depended on the very next words that came out of Julien's mouth.

"You see, as your glorious king,—and I _am_ pretty glorious as you know—it has dawned on me recently that every great king is deserving of a queen. I have spent my time scouring the zoo for a damsel worthy of my greatness, but disappointingly I have found that no lady is pretty enough to fulfill my desires!" he exclaimed.

"Hey!" Marlene fumed.

"So," Julien continued, ignoring the otter's comment. "I have decided that the only animal in the zoo who is worthy enough to not only share the kingly throne, but also bask in the glory that is me," He paused to pose proudly, and was only broken out of his self-induced trance when Skipper cleared his throat in annoyance. "Oh, yes!" Julien went on. "Yes…so my chosen mate and the newly appointed queen of the zoo is Skipper!" He paused for another moment in consideration before correcting himself. "Erm…not queen, technically. More like…other king."

"Other king?" Maurice exclaimed from the sidelines. "Your highness, forgive me if I'm wrong, but I don't think a monarchy works that way…"

Julien turned his attention towards Maurice and scoffed. "Does it _look_ like we are talking about butterflies here Maurice? No? Then shut up!"

The room grew silent aside from a few gasps and mutters throughout the large group of animals.

"So…you really are…together…?" Kowalski asked, his expression contorted into something along the lines of uncertainty mixed with awe. Nearby, Rico made a dissatisfied gagging noise.

Skipper sighed deeply, his head still concealed behind his flippers, wishing he could be anywhere else in the world at the moment. "Yes!" he finally admitted. "Yes, we are, are you happy now? I don't see why it's all such a big deal that a zoo meeting had to be called about our private lives, but there it is! What, you all can't handle the fact that a penguin and a lemur that are expected to hate each other are a couple now? I don't see why it was anyone's business to know about it in the first place, never mind judge us for it!" Skipper was fuming now. "But it doesn't matter what any of you have to say about it anymore, because we're leaving!" he announced finally, grabbing Julien's hand as he began to drag him towards the nearest exit.

"Wait, Skipper!" Shocked that Skipper would ever even think about leaving the zoo altogether, Private quickly climbed down from his place on the countertop and stepped in front of them. "You don't have to do this! Please don't leave!"

"Get out of my way, Private! We're leaving and that is final!" he ordered. "Everyone here might not be able to accept us, but I'm sure there's some place on this Earth that will."

"I guess I don't get a say in this anymore…" Julien muttered to himself, his hand still entwined in his partner's flipper.

"But…but no one's judging you! I promise they aren't! Right everyone?" Private said frantically, turning towards the residents of the zoo in desperation.

The room was absolutely silent again, until a shrill voice broke it. "What makes you think we care?" Roy the rhinoceros asked in a bothered tone. His remark was followed by many whispers of agreement from throughout the crowd.

Skipper's eyes widened. This was something he hadn't expected to hear. "Wait…you really don't mind the fact that we're…dating?"

"Honestly, we just want this stupid meeting to be over so's that we can go to bed!" Bada the gorilla exclaimed, to which Bing nodded.

Slowly, the room began to vacate as the animals exited one by one. It seems, though it was pretty obvious to begin with, that none of them cared for the meeting in the first place, and couldn't care less about a bunch of petty gossip that didn't involve any of them.

"Really, you'd think they would keep their private matters to themselves rather than getting the entire zoo involved…" Mason muttered as he and Phil, who were the last to exist the gift shop, departed. Just like that, the room was empty aside from the penguins, lemurs, and one very confused otter. Skipper stood in the center of the room, still staring in bewilderment at the nonexistent group of animals that was just standing there moments before.

"So…that's it? Nobody actually cared about what was going on in the first place…?" the lead penguin said almost to himself, not sure whether he should be relieved that he didn't have to hide anything anymore or angry at himself for making such a huge deal out of something that apparently wasn't worth anybody's time to begin with.

"What do you mean, 'nobody cares'?" Maurice exclaimed as he and Mort hopped down from the barrel of toys they had been sitting on and joined the remaining animals in the room. "We still want to know what's going on with you two!"

"You bet we do." Kowalski said sternly, glaring at Skipper. "You lied to us…you've _been_ lying to us this entire time! What makes you think you couldn't have just told us what was going on from the start?"

The penguin leader averted his eyes from his teammate's accusing stare, unsure of how to respond. "We were afraid that none of you would understand…that you'd hate us if we told you the truth…"

"What is all this 'we' business? I was certainly not the one afraid of being judged and lying to everybody about it, it was all Skipper!" Julien proclaimed with a fake laugh. Skipper angrily elbowed him in the side.

"Don't give me that! You're in this as much as I am, Ringtail!"

Private stepped forward, ignoring Julien's comment and focusing on Skipper's wild assumption, which confused him. "Hate you? Why would we have any reason to hate you?"

"Yeah, I mean," Kowalski added. "No matter how strange and unlikely it seems that you two would end up…you know…you're still our friends, and it isn't our business anyways. Much less are we in any position to judge you for it. There certainly are more unlikely couples out there than a penguin and a lemur…"

"Uh huh!" Rico agreed, hacking up his doll and holding it close, for extra measure.

"Exactly, Rico!" Kowalski said. "See? He's in love with an inanimate object and we still accept him!"

"Well, it is _Rico_ we're talking about…" Private pointed out.

"Yes, but you get the point."

Reassured by their friends' words, Skipper and Julien exchanged glances and smiled widely at each other. In their rush to get out of the zoo to avoid everyone's judgment, neither of them had thought rationally about the situation, and neither had taken into account how understanding their friends really were. Though the entire situation could have been avoided had they only told the truth in the first place, both were silently glad that it had all turned out the way it had.

"Thank you everyone." Skipper said with relief. "That all worked out much better than expected."

"So does this mean that we don't have to keep everything a secret now?" Julien asked his lover curiously.

"Nope, no more secrets necessary."

"So…our relationship can be public now?"

"Affirmative."

Delighted to finally hear the approval he had been waiting for, the lemur king squealed and bounced up and down in place. "Yes! Finally! Oh I'm so happy I could…" Rather than finishing his sentence, Julien bent down until he was eye level with Skipper and leaned in for a kiss, but Skipper held out a flipper to stop him before he could.

"Not _that_ public, Ringtail." he said sternly. "At least, not yet…"

Julien frowned in disappointment, but perked up again almost instantly when he got another idea. He quickly wrapped both arms around his shorter partner and spun him around, lifting him off his feet and snuggling him close. "Better?" he asked.

Skipper usually didn't mind hugs too much, but he was quickly reminded that six sets of eyes were still watching them intently, so he grimaced in Julien's sudden embrace, trying to mask his embarrassment. "I suppose so…" he told him, offering a weak smile. '_As if this couldn't get any more awkward…'_ he felt like adding.

"I want to hug somebody too!" squealed Mort, who made a beeline for the couple and jumped into his king's arms as well, snuggling up in between them. "Group hug!"

'_So I was wrong, it can always get more awkward._' Skipper thought. He quickly broke free from the embrace, leaving Julien with nothing but the tiny mouse lemur in his arms. Mort only had a few seconds to enjoy the gesture before he was tossed aside like an old forgotten toy.

"Guys!" a female voice shouted from across the room. Everyone suddenly turned their attention towards Marlene, who climbed down from the countertop and faced the penguins and lemurs, hands on her hips, eyes fixed in an irritated glare.

"Oh, sorry Marlene." Private said sheepishly. "I didn't mean to ruin your meeting, but I hope you realize why I had to. Even if nobody cared in the first place, it isn't right to go around spreading people's personal business and such—"

"You wouldn't have had to end the meeting if you would have just listened to me!" she cut him off. "Look, I have no idea how any of this got involved, but I didn't call the zoo in here to spread any kind of rumor or whatever!"

Private's eyes grew wide. "You…you didn't? So…you didn't know about it?"

"I _did_ know about it, but I wasn't going to go around telling everyone about their secret! I'd never do anything like that! What kind of otter do you take me for? The only thing I called a meeting for was to discuss the smaller portions half of the animals at the zoo have been complaining about since the feeding regulations changed, nothing more."

If Skipper had a jaw, it would have dropped. "So…the meeting didn't have anything to do with us?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you!"

"And…nobody in the zoo knew about us besides you and the penguins?" Julien asked.

"Not that I know of."

"So we told everybody the truth…" Skipper said.

"…for nothing." Julien added.

The penguin and lemur glanced at each other briefly before both of them groaned and collapsed onto the floor, absolutely furious with themselves. They had gone through all of that, almost _left the zoo_, for absolutely nothing.


	4. Chapter 4

A few days had passed since those strange and unlikely events had occurred in the Central Park Zoo, and it turned out that it wasn't all for 'absolutely nothing' after all. More or less, everything in the zoo had gone back to normal for everyone—no more lies, no more secrets, and certainly no more late-night meet-ups were necessary anymore. In fact, Julien and Skipper were already shamelessly spending time together that very afternoon, lounging on the king's bamboo furniture in the lemur habitat, basking in the sun.

Neither of them was aware of Mort, who was sneaking about warily as he approached their lounge chairs, his enormous eyes locked on one thing and one thing only: his king's glorious feet. He looked up to find that Julien's eyes were closed, his hands folded over his chest, while Skipper's eyes were shrouded by sunglasses, his flippers behind his head in a relaxed position. This was his chance, neither of them would notice—

"Mort, what did I tell you about interrupting your king's relaxing time?"

The mouse lemur squealed with surprise and scuttled back. His hand hadn't even grazed his king's foot, nor had Julien opened his eyes for a second—how had he sensed that he was even there? Rather than question it, Mort started to blurt out an apology, when his eyes caught a glimpse of something else that immediately caught his attention.

"King Julien…if Skipper is our king, does that make him royalty now?" he asked curiously.

"Technically, yes." was his king's reply.

"So…" Mort said, now fully concentrating on the three-toed orange wonders that might just be his new target. "Does that make his _feet_ royal as well?"

"Yes, but—" Julien began to say, but barely managed to bark out half a syllable before Mort lunged for the lounge chair beside him, intent on caressing the penguin's feet instead. However, before he could even touch his prize, Skipper, who had seemingly been ignoring everything around him in his state of relaxation, was as alert as ever, and with a swift kick the poor mouse lemur went flying across the habitat with a high-pitched shriek. Julien watched his loyal subject disappear from sight with awe, then turned to his partner, who had cracked a smile, his icy eyes still hidden by the sunglasses.

"Nice kick, baby!" the lemur congratulated.

Skipper shrugged in response, still smiling. "It was just a reflex."

Julien grinned and leaned over a few inches—their chairs were already as close together as they could be—to plant a kiss on his partner's cheek. "Reflex or not, it was still impressive."

Skipper finally tipped down the sunglasses to reveal his light blue eyes, and stared into Julien's own gleaming orbs. "I'm sure you could do better." Whether he was talking about kicking or kissing, it didn't matter; they were already closing in for the latter.

"Your highnesses, I brought you those smoothies like you asked!"

The lovers froze in place at the sound of Maurice's voice, eyes wide, less than an inch apart. In response, Maurice, who had been carrying a tray with their smoothies on it, also froze in place and dropped everything in surprise. Julien grimaced and pulled away, trying to hide his embarrassment, and the prominent flush of color on his cheeks. "Maurice! What _perfect_ timing!" he exclaimed angrily.

"S-sorry your majesty! I'll go make some more!" the stout lemur stammered, quickly fleeing the scene.

"Will there be any other interruptions?" Skipper asked nobody in particular, rolling his eyes.

"Eh, perhaps some things should still be made private." Julien said.

"I couldn't agree more." the penguin replied as another smile wormed its way across his beak. "But they'll get used to it eventually."

Both males were oblivious to the set of eyes watching them from afar—more specifically from the high-tech periscope in the confines of the penguin HQ. In fact, Private had been discreetly spying on the pair for the majority of the afternoon, unable to take his eyes off them for a second. There was something about them that he just found so…fascinating. At the same time he was searching for answers, trying to figure out for himself how their relationship was even possible. He figured that if he watched them long enough, he'd find something some sort of clue that would lead him to—

"Private, are you going to stare through that thing all day?"

Kowalski's voice broke the young penguin out of his trance-like state of concentration. He blinked and pulled away from the periscope lens for the first time in what seemed like hours. "Not all day, just until I find out what on Earth makes them so attracted to each other!"

"Don't you know that it's rude to spy?" the smarter penguin said with a glare, turning the periscope around so that the lens was facing away from Private.

"I know, I'm sorry...I was just curious."

"Well, love is a curious thing." Kowalski told him. "Love is also a mysterious thing. You can't just stare at a couple for hours on end and expect to find answers, the truth is you're not going to really find anything that way. It's unlikely that they even know what attracts them to each other so greatly, for the heart is unpredictable and ruthless when it comes to such things. However, it is this unpredictability that makes it all so fascinating, for to choose ourselves who we fall in love with would be like choosing our own fate, and fate is better left untouched; better to deal with what life throws at us than to question or try to change it."

Private only stared at his teammate, eyes wider than dinner plates. Even Rico had stopped in the middle of his own activities to stare in awe at the intelligent penguin, having never heard him analyze anything so flawlessly, especially when it came to matters of the heart. "Wow…Kowalski that was…very insightful. Even…beautiful!" Private remarked.

Kowalski only crossed his flippers behind his back, flattered, but trying not to show it. "It's nothing, really, just something I've come to observe…"

"So, is that why you think Julien and Skipper ended up together? Fate?" Private asked with a dreamy smile.

To this, Kowalski rolled his eyes. "Who, them? Heck if I know, they're a complete mystery to me!"

* * *

**This last part was a bit rushed because I had a writer's block at the time and just wanted to get this over and done with. I just needed a little something to sum everything up. And the sappy bit with Kowalski at the end just kinda...happened. Anyways, I hoped you all enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it!**


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